scholarly journals Multi-source data assimilation for physically-based hydrological modeling of an experimental hillslope

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Botto ◽  
Enrica Belluco ◽  
Matteo Camporese

Abstract. Data assimilation has been recently the focus of much attention for integrated surface-subsurface hydrological models, whereby joint assimilation of water table, soil moisture, and river discharge measurements with the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) have been extensively applied. Although the EnKF has been specifically developed to deal with nonlinear models, integrated hydrological models based on the Richards equation still represent a challenge, due to strong nonlinearities that may significantly affect the filter performance. Thus, more studies are needed to investigate the capabilities of the EnKF to correct the system state and identify parameters in cases where the unsaturated zone dynamics are dominant, as well as to quantify possible tradeoffs associated with assimilation of multi-source data. Here, the model CATHY (CATchment HYdrology) is applied to reproduce the hydrological dynamics observed in an experimental two-layered hillslope, equipped with tensiometers, water content reflectometer probes, and tipping bucket flow gages to monitor the hillslope response to a series of artificial rainfall events. Pressure head, soil moisture, and subsurface outflow are assimilated with the EnKF in a number of scenarios and the challenges and issues arising from the assimilation of multi-source data in this real-world test case are discussed. Our results demonstrate that the EnKF is able to effectively correct states and parameters even in a real application characterized by strong nonlinearities. However, multi-source data assimilation may lead to significant trade-offs: the assimilation of additional variables can lead to degradation of model predictions for other variables that were otherwise well reproduced. Furthermore, we show that integrated observations such as outflow discharge cannot compensate for the lack of well-distributed data in heterogeneous hillslopes.

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 4251-4266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Botto ◽  
Enrica Belluco ◽  
Matteo Camporese

Abstract. Data assimilation has recently been the focus of much attention for integrated surface–subsurface hydrological models, whereby joint assimilation of water table, soil moisture, and river discharge measurements with the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) has been extensively applied. Although the EnKF has been specifically developed to deal with nonlinear models, integrated hydrological models based on the Richards equation still represent a challenge, due to strong nonlinearities that may significantly affect the filter performance. Thus, more studies are needed to investigate the capabilities of the EnKF to correct the system state and identify parameters in cases where the unsaturated zone dynamics are dominant, as well as to quantify possible tradeoffs associated with assimilation of multi-source data. Here, the CATHY (CATchment HYdrology) model is applied to reproduce the hydrological dynamics observed in an experimental two-layered hillslope, equipped with tensiometers, water content reflectometer probes, and tipping bucket flow gages to monitor the hillslope response to a series of artificial rainfall events. Pressure head, soil moisture, and subsurface outflow are assimilated with the EnKF in a number of scenarios and the challenges and issues arising from the assimilation of multi-source data in this real-world test case are discussed. Our results demonstrate that the EnKF is able to effectively correct states and parameters even in a real application characterized by strong nonlinearities. However, multi-source data assimilation may lead to significant tradeoffs: the assimilation of additional variables can lead to degradation of model predictions for other variables that are otherwise well reproduced. Furthermore, we show that integrated observations such as outflow discharge cannot compensate for the lack of well-distributed data in heterogeneous hillslopes.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nawa Pradhan ◽  
Charles Downer ◽  
Sergei Marchenko

To account for the seasonal changes in the soil thermal and hydrological dynamics, the soil moisture state physical process defined by the Richards Equation is integrated with the soil thermal state defined by the numerical model of phase change based on the quasi-linear heat conductive equation. The numerical model of phase change is used to compute a vertical soil temperature profile using the soil moisture information from the Richards solver; the soil moisture numerical model, in turn, uses this temperature and phase, information to update hydraulic conductivities in the vertical soil moisture profile. Long-term simulation results from the test case, a head water sub-catchment at the peak of the Caribou Poker Creek Research Watershed, representing the Alaskan permafrost active region, indicated that freezing temperatures decreases infiltration, increases overland flow and peak discharges by increasing the soil ice content and decaying the soil hydraulic conductivity exponentially. Available observed and the simulated soil temperature comparison analysis showed that the root mean square error for the daily maximum soil temperature at 10-cm depth was 4.7 °C, and that for the hourly soil temperature at 90-cm and 300-cm was 0.17 °C and 0.14 °C, respectively.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yohei Sawada

Abstract. It is expected that hyperresolution land modeling substantially innovates the simulation of terrestrial water, energy, and carbon cycles. The major advantage of hyperresolution land models against conventional one-dimensional land surface models is that hyperresolution land models can explicitly simulate lateral water flows. Despite many efforts on data assimilation of hydrological observations into those hyperresolution land models, how surface water flows driven by local topography matter for data assimilation of soil moisture observations has not been fully clarified. Here I perform two minimalist synthetic experiments where soil moisture observations are assimilated into an integrated surface-groundwater land model by an ensemble Kalman filter. I discuss how differently the ensemble Kalman filter works when surface lateral flows are switched on and off. A horizontal background error covariance provided by overland flows is important to adjust the unobserved state variables (pressure head and soil moisture) and parameters (saturated hydraulic conductivity). However, the non-Gaussianity of the background error provided by the nonlinearity of a topography-driven surface flow harms the performance of data assimilation. It is difficult to efficiently constrain model states at the edge of the area where the topography-driven surface flow reaches by linear-Gaussian filters. It brings the new challenge in land data assimilation for hyperresolution land models. This study highlights the importance of surface lateral flows in hydrological data assimilation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 3881-3898
Author(s):  
Yohei Sawada

Abstract. It is expected that hyperresolution land modeling substantially innovates the simulation of terrestrial water, energy, and carbon cycles. The major advantage of hyperresolution land models against conventional 1-D land surface models is that hyperresolution land models can explicitly simulate lateral water flows. Despite many efforts on data assimilation of hydrological observations into those hyperresolution land models, how surface water flows driven by local topography matter for data assimilation of soil moisture observations has not been fully clarified. Here I perform two minimalist synthetic experiments where soil moisture observations are assimilated into an integrated surface–groundwater land model by an ensemble Kalman filter. I discuss how differently the ensemble Kalman filter works when surface lateral flows are switched on and off. A horizontal background error covariance provided by overland flows is important for adjusting the unobserved state variables (pressure head and soil moisture) and parameters (saturated hydraulic conductivity). However, the non-Gaussianity of the background error provided by the nonlinearity of a topography-driven surface flow harms the performance of data assimilation. It is difficult to efficiently constrain model states at the edge of the area where the topography-driven surface flow reaches by linear-Gaussian filters. It brings the new challenge in land data assimilation for hyperresolution land models. This study highlights the importance of surface lateral flows in hydrological data assimilation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aruna Kumar Nayak ◽  
Basudev Biswal ◽  
Kulamulla Parambath Sudheer

<p>Soil moisture data assimilation has found increased applicability in hydrology due to easily available remotely sensed soil moisture data. Numerous studies in the past have explored the possibility of assimilating soil moisture information for improving streamflow forecasting. The general understanding is that if better soil moisture data can provide better streamflow forecast. However, to our knowledge no study has so far focused on understanding if the hydrological model itself has a role in assimilation of soil moisture data. In this regard, here we use three different conceptual hydrological models for soil moisture assimilation: (1) Dynamic Budyko (DB), (2) GR4J, and (3) PDM model. Assimilation of GLDAS observed soil moisture is carried out for four MOPEX basins using Ensemble Kalman Filter. DB model’s performance improved after soil moisture data assimilation for all the study basins. However, deterioration in performance was observed for GR4J and PDM for all the basins after the assimilation exercise. The performance of the assimilated models is evaluated in terms of Assimilation Efficiency (AE), which was found to be varying from 17.11 to 22.56%, from -20.98 to -41.29%, and from -8.4 to -38.23%, respectively, for DB, GR4J, and PDM. Overall, our results highlight the importance of the hydrological models structure in a soil moisture data assimilation exercise.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basil Kraft ◽  
Martin Jung ◽  
Marco Körner ◽  
Sujan Koirala ◽  
Markus Reichstein

Abstract. Progress in machine learning in conjunction with the increasing availability of relevant Earth observation data streams may help to overcome uncertainties of global hydrological models due to the complexity of the processes, diversity, and heterogeneity of the land surface and subsurface, as well as scale-dependency of processes and parameters. In this study, we exemplify a hybrid approach to global hydrological modeling that exploits the data-adaptiveness of machine learning for representing uncertain processes within a model structure based on physical principles like mass conservation. Our H2M model simulates the dynamics of snow, soil moisture, and groundwater pools globally at 1º spatial resolution and daily time step where simulated water fluxes depend on an embedded recurrent neural network. We trained the model simultaneously against observational products of terrestrial water storage variations (TWS), runoff, evapotranspiration, and snow water equivalent with a multi-task learning approach. We find that H2M is capable of reproducing the key patterns of global water cycle components with model performances being at least on par with four state-of-the-art global hydrological models. The neural network learned hydrological responses of evapotranspiration and runoff generation to antecedent soil moisture state that are qualitatively consistent with our understanding and theory. Simulated contributions of groundwater, soil moisture, and snowpack variability to TWS variations are plausible and within the large range of traditional GHMs. H2M indicates a somewhat stronger role of soil moisture for TWS variations in transitional and tropical regions compared to GHMs. Overall, we present a proof of concept for global hybrid hydrological modeling in providing a new, complementary, and data-driven perspective on global water cycle variations. With further increasing Earth observations, hybrid modeling has a large potential to advance our capability to monitor and understand the Earth system by facilitating a data-adaptive yet physically consistent, joint interpretation of heterogeneous data streams.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ching Pui Hung ◽  
Bernd Schalge ◽  
Gabriele Baroni ◽  
Emilio Sanchez ◽  
Olaf Cirpka ◽  
...  

<p>Estimating states and fluxes of the water cycle with terrestrial system models needs a large amount of input data, including soil and vegetation parameters, resulting in large uncertainties in model predictions. Assimilation of pressure head and/or soil moisture data can better constrain states and parameters of a terrestrial system model. Here we assimilate pressure head data and soil moisture data in a terrestrial system model over the Neckar catchment (13928 km<sup>2</sup>) with a spatial horizontal resolution of 800 m. We use the Terrestrial System Modeling Platform (TSMP), which consists of an atmospheric model component (not used in this work), the Community Land Model version 3.5 (CLM3.5), and the subsurface hydrological model Parflow, coupled by OASIS. TSMP is coupled to the Parallel Data Assimilation Framework (PDAF), which allows the assimilation of land surface and subsurface observations to estimate the model states and parameters. In this work the localized Ensemble Kalman Filter (LEnKF) was used to update hydraulic head, soil moisture and/or saturated hydraulic conductivity by assimilating hydraulic head or in situ soil moisture observations for a period of one year. Ensembles of soil properties, leaf area index and atmospheric forcings were generated. The ensemble of atmospheric forcings considered correlations among four variables, and spatio-temporal correlations of the atmospheric variables using a geostatistical procedure. The characterization of the water table depth and river discharge without data assimilation and for different scenarios of pressure head and soil moisture data assimilation were compared.</p>


Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Huidae Cho ◽  
Lorena Liuzzo

Physically-based or process-based hydrologic models play a critical role in hydrologic forecasting [...]


Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Gerald Norbert Souza da Silva ◽  
Márcia Maria Guedes Alcoforado de Moraes

The development of adequate modeling at the basin level to establish public policies has an important role in managing water resources. Hydro-economic models can measure the economic effects of structural and non-structural measures, land and water management, ecosystem services and development needs. Motivated by the need of improving water allocation using economic criteria, in this study, a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) with a hydro-economic optimization model (HEAL system) was developed and used for the identification and analysis of an optimal economic allocation of water resources in a case study: the sub-middle basin of the São Francisco River in Brazil. The developed SDSS (HEAL system) made the economically optimum allocation available to analyze water allocation conflicts and trade-offs. With the aim of providing a tool for integrated economic-hydrological modeling, not only for researchers but also for decision-makers and stakeholders, the HEAL system can support decision-making on the design of regulatory and economic management instruments in practice. The case study results showed, for example, that the marginal benefit function obtained for inter-basin water transfer, can contribute for supporting the design of water pricing and water transfer decisions, during periods of water scarcity, for the well-being in both basins.


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